represented factually. the best of what america could be. that having the only emancipated the slaves in 100 something years before, could now put as its chief executive a black man. so it just -- it was better drama. >> it was not a political

choice. i it was a story-telling choice, where just -- >> bob cochran trying to create stakes. this guy has to stop it. ment the assassination would be a national catastrophe. and the first black american in the white house. that's where the choice came from, the choice for dramatic stakes. >> last question. >> it's been great -- [inaudible] >> i wanted to circle back to what you referenced about the saudi ambassador saying something that around the world -- from in africa and thailand and singapore and egypt are viewing americans through television, and i wonder -- you've already discussed what

you think -- what control do you have about the shows going there and being translated or maybe not the dialogue that you intended? i'm just speculating. how does that work? because, according to him, this has a huge influence in how we're viewed as americans. >> right. >> well, what -- it's actually a distribution model. the question is, what control do we as artists have? terms of distribution? >> do you even know about the running dialogue -- >> the distribution questions. >> i don't know -- i assume fox has some -- there's some monitoring mechanism. >> that's not the question. >> whether the dialogue has changed. >> the dialogue is the same. whether at it subtitled or --

what do they call it? dubbed. i will tell you, we're doing 24 in india now. we're taking the format, and neil kapur who played the fictional prime minister of a country, actually playing -- he was actually a bollywood star. and he was the, who wants to be a millionaire. but he is playing jack baris. we're doing the show hopefully in it full run, there. i do think that there is a great opportunity for cultural dip application, notwithstanding the hards a show like 24 may have had. there is a tremendous power and responsibility, and it is good that those of us who do this and create the content here are mineful at the very least that we have that power, and that responsibility.

i do think it is easy to be isolated in los angeles. we live in this bubble. a little twinkie defense to say, it's just a television show. i don't think that's a valid point of view to have as a creative artist. but i think it's an important thing. >> can i -- as the moderator, i'll make one comment and ask a final question. i grew up in the netherlands and there are 19 political parties in the late 60s and 70s and they used to buy time and they could broadcast anything they wanted. and interestingly, in the mid-70s, the shows that thary. left showed, was all in the family because they wanted everybody in holland to believe that archie bunker was thary. typal american, and the more conservative party shows

m.a.s.h., to show that there were people in the united states who are sympathetic with the liberal causes in holland. so you can never understand how it's going to be manipulated by local agendas and parties. and. >> let me ask a last question here. aside from things you have been directly involved with, is there a film or documentary or a television show which you think is, in your mind, a great example of what hollywood can mean or the entertain -- entertainment business can mean -- a singular drama or television show that stands out to you where something has done that sort of thing. >> this may be a sentimental, which i but "mr. smith goes to washington." no matter who watches it, no matter what your politics are, i can't imagine anyone watching

that film and not being somehow moved to have a voice. ultimately that has to be the most important thing, i thing, in the battle to be able to put voice to your experience and your point of view. it has to be a multiple point of view thing. so i suppose that gets me everytime. >> good choice. >> i had a jimmy stewart movie putt it's a wonderful life" for no good reason. i was going to pass on the question but i had a jimmy stewart movie, too. just because it was a snapshot of an admittedly a fictioned and imagined america and maybe an america that was at its best, and to extent that was a window to the rest of the world about the community, and people at their best. >> david? >> the thing that -- my blink reaction when you said that was

"saturday night live." just because i love politics. i love the sport of politics. i find it fascinating, and between "saturday night live", jon stewart, i like satire that attempts to sort of speak truth to power. >> thank you. >> cheat and say "twelve angry men." >> the show that dominating in holland was peyton place. all of holland came to a stop to watch it. thank you. >> 14-1/2 million cars were sold last year. the most since 2007. on tomorrow's washington journal we look for the reasons in the growth in auto sales and how they're affecting the overall economy. our guest is justin hyde who covers the auto industry for

yahoo. >> the big discussion i remember , what is richard nixon going to do? >> i remember going home scared to death. this is like a time bomb. it's a disaster for all of us. >> came to me and said, john dean, the president's counsel, has just brought me a list of i think 50 names of people, and wants a full investigation of them. that's a very unpleasant thing to have happen to you. >> shortly after the speech, al

haig, chief of staff called me, and he said, we are forgot one thing. he said we forgot a resignation letter. i said, that's very interesting. interesting reading. he said, you don't get it. you need to write it. >> i thought the best way was not for me as an historian -- i'm a trained historian, although i wasn't a nixon specialist. was for the players, key people living from that era, to tell the story themselves. so i thought the best way to do this was to start a video or history program that involved the nixon players in the watergate drama, from the left and right to have them tell the story, and then to use portions of the story in the museum to let visitors understand the complexity of this constitutional drama. >> the former head of the nixon presidential library and museum, details the library's oral

history project sunday night at 8:00. >> next, nbc's andrea mitchell participates in a discussion on women in leadership positions. she and other panelists shared their experiences on various challenges in their career and the work place family balance. hoed by the washington post. this 50eus -- this is 50 minutes. >> nancy ann depaul. how are you, welcome. >> and dr. shirley ann jackson. >> and andrea mitchell. who is probably been working since 5:00 this morning, too. >> i bet you every single person here has been up since 5:00. >> block i saw the dress andrea had on, and i thought --

>> that was clever. you're not a rhodes scholar for thing. >> 4:30 wakeup for the morning joe. >> oh, my gun. what time do you get up? >> 4:30 to 5:00. >> i'm the late raiser, 5:00 to 5:30. >> how late do you work straight through? typically. i guess every day is different. >> when you're doing the "today" program you have to be the last one out at night to make sure you have the overnight. especially secretary clinton was traveling because there were late and early developments as well. so i'm there until 10:00 or 11:00, and i can go out and get michigan to eat and come back. >> for the two people in america who don't know andrea mitchell, i want to introduce her. incomes' chief foreign affairs correspondence. one of the most respected and

hardest working journalist in america and we're delighted she is here. next to her is shirley ann jackson, the president of poly tick nick cal institute the very first african-american woman to run a top research university. month the many, many firsts, 51 honorary degrees, she has been the first -- ran the national science foundation -- >> the regular la tier commission. >> nuclear regulatory commission, and the very first black woman to get a ph.d at m.i.t. [applause] >> and attendancy ann depaul is assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff of the executive office of the white house. an expert in medicare and medicaid and all things health. she has been called the health czar of america. the point guard in overhauling the american healthcare system. how about that for a job. >> there you go. >> what a powerhouse right here.

so, we actually have a lot of brain power up here right now. and i wonder, all of you could have done very different things. you really had a lot of choices. so i just love to hear you about how you ended up picking what you did? who wants to start? >> i'm a failed violinist. i was raised to be a musician, and my mother still asks me why i haven't -- [laughter] >> always interested in politics and writing stories for the school paper, and then kind of -- it actually was complete serendipity. i was in college at the university of pennsylvania, and was at a meeting of the naacp. this was the 60s, and heard music down the corridor and it was the college radio station, which was programming classical

music, and i was just drawn to it. and pitched in and began programming classical music, and then they needed someone to help with the news, and i'd always been passionate about politics. everyone in my era was, as well as the college students were. and it was the height of the civil rights movement. the vietnam war. so many issues to become engaged in. so i started moving up the ladder at the college station, interned at a local all-news radio station, and that was the end of the violin. >> then you just kept working at it and loved it? >> it wasn't quite that simple. it was in a day when they did not hire women for newsroom jobs in broadcasting. period. there were a few anchor women, a few weather women, there were just not average run of the mill journalist assignment reporters,

and i was told they weren't about to do it at this radio station, and i could go into advertising or promotion. i was accepted in the corporate trainee program, actually, and i said, hire me as a copy boy, which is what they -- they require copy. it's predigital -- back in the days of film and television and a very different era. so they give me the midnight to 8:00 shift, and said if i prove myself, there where no one would see me, i might -- and i worked my way up. i don't know if that's your experience as well. i i'm sure there were far more barriers to you. in the science or engineering side. >> i actually grew up here, for the students from eastern high school. >> bell victorian from our local high school. >> my story is a little different.

i collected live bumblebees. >> how old were you when you started doing that? >> probably around ten. and so we had a crawlspace under our parents' back porch. and i used to keep are jars of bees and do little experiments with them, putting them in with other kind of like and unlike insects, and keeping a very assiduous log. but then i sort of discovered math, and i was pretty good. so i went to m.i.t., and of course i took a physics course when i was a freshman from an englishman, named tony french, and i fell in love with that. i started in electrical engineering. then i took -- this is going to sound a bit sort of cerebral. >> i took a subject called

quantum mechanics, and i loved it, and i was listening to secretary solis about being toll she was not college material. i was in college, pretty good grades. as and whatnot. but i was told that colored girls should learn a trade, from one of the professors, from whom i got an a. so i decided i would learn a trade and it would be physics. [laughter] >> can you get angry like she does? does that fuel you a little bit? >> i've had my share. i'm probably more of the era with you, andrea, and of course, one runs into those things. but over time i think one has to try to develop on evenness, and what helped me was -- when i was a freshman, i did volunteer work at what was then called boston city hospital, and i worked in a

pediatric ward, and these were very young people who had ailments ranging from leukemia to orthopedic problems, and there was a little boy who was born without real facial features. just had a hole for a nose and no real eyes and mouth. a little white kid. and his parents never came to see him. so when i would go, i would hold him every day. so gave me time to think about it, and one comes to understand that everyone has a cross to bear, and so you try to really understand people, where they are, and that has always -- >> does that help you minimize any problems you have yourself? >> it does, because if i'm healthy, if i have abilities, i have opportunity, in spite of many obstacles. then i can't get but so depressed. and in the end, i'm motivate by

trying to do something for other people. that's why i loved being the president of the university. to help young people realize the as separations -- >> what is the key to motivating young people? this is something parents and teachers want to know. we want you to motivate these guys out here. >> well, i think you have to try to meet them where they are. but you have to try to have them understand their talent, and it takes a lot of time. and -- but you have to get them to feel they have unique talents that allow them to make a difference. and in the process, they can be personally successful, create wealth, solve the world's great global challenges. >> you have said it's a golden thing when you marry something you're good at with something you're willing to work hard at.

>> that's correct. >> so if everybody just knew what they were good at and what they were willing to put the effort in, it would go a long way to picking the right -- >> i have one advantage, which is by the time the young people come to a university like ours, they're pretty motivated. because to get in, to have chosen to study primarily science or engineering. but you'd be amazed how many of them nonetheless have questions about where they're going and what they want to do, and so that's what we're there for, to take them through that passage, and it's a privilege. >> nancy ann, you went to harvard law school, oxford. you could have down so many things. how did you end up as the health care czar. >> have done many things. in my case i've done many things. i actually start off as a lawyer. i'm from a real small town in east tennessee. and my mom, who raised three kids on her own, didn't have a

college education but she just imbued in me this notion i could do anything i wanted to do. >> how did she do that? just tell you that every day or how do you feel she made -- >> well, she had very high expectations, and let me know that she expected me to do well in school. but when i would talk to her about, i might work in the white house some day or i'm interested in politics or bag lawyer, she never said -- she said, you'll have to study hard and make good grades because you'll need to get a scholarship because i won't be able to afford it. but she never said, -- the sky's the limit was her view. so i did go to law school, and in the early '80s, when i got out of law school, i went back to tennessee to practice, and was going around to law firms,

and even at that it point there weren't that many women in the law firm and i had guys who interviewed me sit me down and say, you understand, if you come to the firm you have to try cases, you have to go to court. i said i'm excited about it. and then i had clients who in the beginning would -- i'd go in to meet with them and afterwards one of my partners would tell me they said, well, that wasn't the team i expected. or words to that effect. which meant, gee, we didn't know there was going to be lady lawyer on this case. but i really liked trying cases. that was a lot of fun. then i was drawn into politics. throughout my career, i've been interested in how to change things for the better, and i've been very fortunate to have lots of opportunity to serve. going back to -- >> you mentioned your mother. naps si's mother died of lung

cancer when you were 17. and she was such a force in your life. how did that affect you? >> well,. >> good and bad. it made my strong a way because it was clear i had no one to depend on than me. >> were you the oldest in. >> no. i was the middle. i have two brothers. so, in that sense i guess it makes you tough at an early age. at the same time it made me realize that there war lot of things i wanted to get down in life and i felt very much driven to succeed. i wanted to be sure i have the chance to experience it. >> one of you touched on the -- it was a distinct thing you were

a woman. can you flame it, how did being a woman affect your career? >> well, i was just thinking when nancy was talking about rick sandra deo connor, taking a job as a second in a law firm. so it's surprisingly still present in subtle ways. everything would have been different for me if i had not been a woman, but i wouldn't have had the joy of not only being a woman but of mentoring women and the sisterhood that we are, and last night, on nbc nightly news -- i think -- we had four women in our bureau who work for now nightly news." lisa mayors, kristen well kerr

at the white house, and last night all four of us were on the air, bam, bam, bam. so that was kind of really exciting. i realized it halfway through the show and sent messages to the others and -- it was very, very cool. >> that would never happen happened. it would have been a whole lot easier for me. i always feet that i had to volunteer for everything. and that i was judged by a much tougher standard. i had to work weekends. when i first went to cover the reagan white house, i just was coming in at the bottom. i was number four correspondent in a group of four from nbc. i had to just look for any chance i could to break through and cover the big stories. i always thought i had to be there every day to really observe ronald reagan. i had not covered him in the '80s campaign. was still covering the energy crisis on three mile island and the aftermath of that and a lot of other things, nuclear power.

>> you know, there's so much attention to what women on tv wear and what they look like and their hair. is that still true? >> well -- >> or is it getting better in. >> an article -- >> i saw that. >> the first i heard about it. >> a story very recently about the clothes that women anchors wearing. they're not wearing suits as much. it was only about women. right? >> yeah. seems to me, frankly, a little silly and beside the point. the exciting thing is we're covering major beats, that we have women in very important roles, both in front of and behind the cameras. we have women executive producers. this is very important. and vice presidents and running our major broadcasts, and making very big decisions. >> don't feel that women get put on tv for looks if they have

blonde, poofy hair. >> some places yes but my experience has been in three -- more than 34 years now with nbc news, and before that, i was a proud employee of post-news week at channel 9. that's why i came -- i was recruited from philadelphia to come here by post-"newsweek" broadcasting and had two very heavy years. but nobody has ever said to me, -- maybe once i was wearing something with polka dots. i thought it was very chic, and i heard the producer say in my articulation if you ever wear that again, i'll murder your or something. >> it could have been just too loud. >> way too loud. >> but nobody ever said anything to me about sort of obvious fashion. it is a visual medium and you have to be reason my presentable. but i think there have been

major breakthroughs in that women are now visually aging on television, thank you very much. and women of all sizes and descriptions are doing very important on-camera work, because they're smart. >> i just want to ask you one more question about hair. you covered hillary clinton, and she is a woman. enormous chatter about her hair, and you cover her. what do you make of that? >> it is so incredibly annoying. this goes back all the way. remember the head bands in 1992? [applause] >> someone likes it. >> i don't know if that's for head band or being annoying. so her she is, washington post has a pole indicating her strong popularity. and i cover her, and i see the pluses and minuses, and report

very strongly on her in terms of the good and the bad and whatever. but you have to say that she has achieved big things in this transition, coming from the senate -- well, first when we covered her when she was running for the senate. it wasn't self-evident that a former first lady could do that job. the came in under the radar, worked with -- there were only 13 women in the senate and became a team player and developed key alliances, and worked on the armed services committee and proved herself 0, to the point she was considered a credible national candidate and came in second and ran a very strong campaign. i think she has inspired a lot of people, and worked very, very hard, that's clear, and the rest of her story is yet to be told. her hair is the least important thing about her. >> i suppose the fact that that is going on is still -- polls

are showing her very high and that can co-exist with people who have enormous respect. >> what if she were to have a hairdresser on the plane and instead of going to meet examination working hard what gettingcoiffed, then we would be doing stories about all the money being spent -- >> shirley, i want to move to science. such a huge thing about the lack of women in science. and at some universities only 10% of the teachers at the top school in science are female. there's a dearth of people. what can we do to get more women motivated to go into science and why is it important? >> let's talk about why they aren't there first. why they aren't there begins very early in terms of what

women are exposed to the expectations, and it's a lot of hard work. not that people don't work hard in everything, but science is a funny business, because one is not always in the limelight, and so that kind of public affirmation is not there all the time, until one is a fair distance down the road. unless one becomes kind of the instant entrepreneur or something like that. and so a lot of them would -- what happened to women is going to happen within in the community within which they work, and a lot of the attitudes get reinforced. so what needs to happen, we have to try to reach young women early. we have to affirm them. we have to, as a society, i think, value science and those

who do it a little more, because everything that we like to play with and things we use, including in broadcast media, and as nancy-ann knows in healthcare, are rooted in scientific discovery and technological innovation. so they has to be a greater appreciation for the role of science and technology in society. then we have to get young women engaged early. we found at the university that if young women are engaged in experimental work, if they're part of a team, it make as big difference. so we try to create an enter generational mentoring system. but then as a leader of a university, when young women come up through the ranks, to come forward for -- for what is called the promotion and tenure process, then we have to ensure

fairness of the system. and so it's a complex problem and it's hard for people to talk about it. but -- >> why is it important that hairs more women in science? >> it's important that there be more scientists. >> period. >> we're about to face what i call the quiet crisis. >> the quiet crisis. >> right. have a number of the sciences in this country who came of age in the post sputnik era as i did, and they're beginning to retire, and those retirements are going to accelerate over the next few years. the second kind of hidden variable although people talk about it when the talk about series saturday, -- visas can we depend very strongly on immigrants and we've always been an a nation of immigrants but people don't appreciate how much of our science engineering work force is made up -- d30% of masters degrees. >> 40% of the ph.ds coming

out of america are people from other countries? >> correct. that's good. i mean, it says we are an attracter. but here's the thing. we go and rage about immigration policy. but the world is changing. so, people are having opportunities back home. -- >> they're getting educated here and going back home. >> other countries want them. there's a global search for talent. so if we don't understand that, we're going to lose out. so the reason i say it's a quiet crisis is because you have a group that represents about 5% of the work force that has helped to drive 50% of the gdp growth since world war ii. >> 5% of the work force are engineers and scientists. but the value of those people, you're saying, is way -- >> the multiplicative factor is high. but then as they retire, or people don't come, or don't stay, then it's quiet.

like cat's paws. >> bumblebees. >> and by the time we recognize it, it's a crisis because it takes years, decades, to create a high-performing scientist or engineer, and so i don't want to -- i'm always the serious one of these panels. bus this is serious stuff. >> basically we need more women because we need -- >> well, women have unique perspectives, and we find at our university, women tend to go into fields that relate to those things that touch people the most. so they're very strongly in biomedical engineering, biochemical engineering, biology, and they make unique contributions because they bring a holistic perspective you don't always find in some of our young men. and then we finally put them together, the young men and the young women. then they influence each other. and so the women learn to think

in certain ways that are a little different. but the men as well begin to develop this more holistic perspective. it's fun to watch. >> you have been at the heart of one of the most divisive and important issues in america, healthcare reform. when you're working this hard on something that so many people desperately want, see it as so vital, and then other people think it's the worst thing that's ever happened to america and you have pundits screaming and ranting about it. how do you keep going and how do you put the criticism and those people that are against what you're doing in perspective. >> well, you have to remember that when i started doing this it wasn't so clear there was such a polar rising issue. when i started off when the president asked me to come work on this issue in march of 2009,

actually february -- it appeared from the summit we had at the white house that there were republicans and democrats sitting down together, talking about how do we do something to address the problems of costs and getting people access to quality health care, and there were truly bipartisan discussions going on, and i hit the ground running with part of those, and hours on capitol hill, meeting with republicans, and putting together the bills with the senate and the house, that had a lot of ideas that came out of republican think tanks. based on the massachusetts plan, which was, of course, driven by -- >> heard about that plan. >> governor, and we consulted with a lot of people who worked on it. so it wasn't always so clear it would be so divisive. towards the end, when -- honestly, i remember feeling dismayed.

and disoriented almost walking out of the capitol the day the house voted, and i had been there with my oldest son, who is -- i guess 11 at the time, and thinking how wonderful it was going to be that he would grow up in a country where he would think it was strange when he heard that there was a time when we used to say someone couldn't get insurance or it would be priced prohibitively because they had a preexisting condition, or that women would have a very different price than men for health insurance, we would make it harder or lifetime limits, that people used to go without car. and so that seemed like a huge moment of progress for our country to me, and then to walk out and see people with signs, you know, yelling epithets, was pretty disorienting. i believe -- and i certainly saw this with the president this year on the campaign trail, and

we had a moment, andrea, like the one you described where there's another deputy chief of staff, woman who is a force, alisa, who is the deputy chief of staff operations. i do policy. once we found ourselves both on marine one, along with deputy communications director, joan, and with the military aide, who is a woman, and basically almost everyone on there was a woman. president looked up and looked around and he didn't say anything and we all were like, hey, i wonder if he notices this? so, that's been a lot of fun. but i'd like to thank and what i saw on the campaign trail was the president wasn't hearing the stories anymore about how insurance companies jerked me around, or i can't get coverage. what he is hearing now is things are getting better. we ran -- >> what is the thing that you really wanted?

>> it's hard for know choose -- >> you have to. >> i would say banning the process of excluding people who have preexisting conditions. that just doesn't make any sense. to say that someone who has been sick, like my mom who had cancer, couldn't go out on the market and buy insurance. >> right. >> it's a drive- -- >> it was to see her worrying. she would go to cork even when she was sick and going through chemo therapy because she was worried about losing her job and losing her insurance and then not being able to be there for us. yes, that was a driver for me. and i'm proud that the president -- i'm proud to work for a president who was willing to risk his career and fight for this. >> how do you -- when there's all this noise and criticism. how do you stay focused? a lot of people have found themselves not so in the national spotlight but you have

a drive and you feel like what you're doing is the right thing, but there's a lot of obstacles. how too you stay focused? >> well, i think all of us probably have this experience of just -- you just have to tell yourself, it's important to listen to everyone and be respectful, and courteous, and try to understand problems that people have with it. but in the end, you have a job to do and that's to get the best product that is close toast what congress intended as dd -- as closest to what congress intended. we always need to listen. i learn something every day. >> shirley was going to say something and then we're going the floor for questions. >> i'm asking it of nancy-ann as a policy person but i have to ask my friend here in the media. how do things get so bolloxed up

when clearly people benefit from the various things she talked about. but some of them are convexed this is a bad thing for them. do we understand that? >> well, let me take another -- >> trying to take over your job. >> another example which for me personally is very hard to get my head around, and i have to as a correspondent, understand all points of view -- was the 61-38 vote in the senate on the disability, which is basically replicating what has been american policy since george h.w. bush 22 years ago negotiated this with congress. it was bro posed george w. bush. it was agitated by john mccain

and the wounded warriors, and the chamber of commerce? and john kerry and bob dole, and it was voted down, including five votes, key votes, from former colleagues of bob dole's, friends and colleagues who worked with him, despite his appearance just out of bethesda naval hospital in a wheelchair, on the senate floor, wheeled by his wife, former senator, all over what the senate foreign relations committee had a full legislative record, the hearings indicated that the black helicopters were not coming and this was not some crazy requirement on america. it was simply that 26 other countries have ratified this, and it went down. and so i'm still trying to understand the opposition. >> what do you think? >> i think it's fear. and that's why dr. jackson --

it's not based on fact. on reality. it's fear, and that's what people -- andrea used, someone is able to hype this notion that we're somehow agreeing to one world government by signing this -- by ratifying this treaty, which as you say, simply really embodies what has been our law, americans with disability, for decades and the chamber endorsed it. but there's this fear somehow -- and with healthcare. >> not enough facts -- >> the fear of the government and the fear of having to be accountable for having health insurance, the so-called mandate even though there's help. >> there's a velocity of information to both social media and also table talk radio, tv, a lot of information out there,

and it gets amplified. so rapidly now, in nanoseconds, it's hard for the press to catch up. >> what do you tell the consumer of news or information? how do they get the best? >> i say being a smart consumer who goes to as hasn't sources as possible and be a consumer. ...

most of us need to now be on my wine that can produce babies. therefore, i was just wondering about with this casey's schedule you mentioned waking up at 4:00 and coming back maybe midnight sometimes, how do you balance with a career? because the mother is the most important role in the family and therefore the child and the child is everything we talk here. we also mention respect and dignity. how can a women in the united states the independent and have

security of a courier and she has [inaudible] this is a part of the woman trimming about a career. not to be feared when she goes to an interview that she has children. thank you. >> thank you. >> i'd be happy to do that. i talked to about getting up to 4:30. what i do when i get up, i happen to have a son. he's grown up now. so when i get up at 4:30 to 5:00, he's off living his life. my husband and i have been in

similar careers, so that really helped a lot. but over the years, i actually make choices in terms of what was in the pathway i was on i would do in order to create the flexibility for me to raise our son and i do think that is so very important. the one thing i would say about universities and i can especially speak about mine. we do have more family friendly pilot on chad possibilities because we have family visa that if the family adopts a child, there's a period of time they can have off. full text what is called the tenure clock for women if they are pregnant and then they can pick up. so while these things are important and we find that it ends up having the young women

the much more project is that if we did not have these things. >> anyone else? i will. i had two young sons. they are now 11 and 13. but there were much younger for years ago when i started with president obama. it's been a real struggle. it's very difficult in my husband has taken on far more of the load. and he was very active even before, but he's taken on much more of the load. i leave so early that i'm getting up as they leave and i come home and it's time for them to go to bed. it's a struggle and that's why you see fewer women at the top in a lot of professions because there's a lot of self-selection. they're subtle things as well, but a lot of self-selection has surely said, shirley ann.

you go in different paths because you don't want to sacrifice your family life. >> i would just say i have not had the blessing of children, so my work ethic in that i'm there all the time. i live in edinburgh and is always there and my assignment in foreign policy and protect other is to be there when there's emergencies around the world. but i have colleagues who i grew up with here. judy woodruff with three children, including a child with special needs and for children at the white house all these years and other young colleagues now in our bureau come young producers and associate producers getting pregnant, having children, white house producer alisa jennings married to someone on the hill with two kids at home and she travels all the time. so there are ways corporations

here are much more flexible in broadcasting now. one of our top executives in new york with kids at home, not taking on bigger roles. so it can be done and in a think about so out of touch trade of. our corporate structure out to be more forgiving as supportive of it. that is clearly the case. >> i spent four years here as chairman of the nrc in our son is just entering high school. so in fact, my husband and i made the decision that we've would not move here so as not to disrupt his life. without him in the school year is out. that meant my husband essentially during the week to do everything as much as i could and went home every weekend so i didn't participate in the washington social scene all the

time. we felt to us both important to do the public service, but especially important that we kept stability in our son's life. >> okay, another question. >> i was wondering if being a female in your job changes the perception of other people. >> error high school students asking this question. because your one and, are you perceived differently? >> i would say yes. i worked at a lobster in theoretical physics research for a number of years. >> are their eternal been women there? >> no. it answers her question. so the vice president for research at the nobel prize winner and he set the balance and talk to me one day.

he says you know, you can always have this kind of halo effect, not because you're an angel, but because when you get to talk, but her professional meeting, there's going to be a lot of light on you. people really watch you. you can either have it make you run away or you can decide to optimize and do the best you can. and that's what i've always done. over time it actually builds the credit and that helps you. but i do find that sometimes it's hard for men to deal with women who are strong and what they do. >> we are running out of time and i want to add that be should the women what they wish they had known in 17 that would've made this salad easier. part of what andrea said was never permit others to define your goal. decide what you want to go for it. can you say something about that? >> i was very fortunate in that my parents have always told me

that i could do anything as your mom told you and i never felt that their alliance until it got into my first job right out of college and discovered all of the limits. if i had known when i graduated college, i guess i was just 20 and i wish that i had known that i could do everything that i have done because he was always a struggle after. if i'd had more confidence in myself, it would've been a lot easier all around. if i'd known i could compete and didn't have to defer to my male colleagues as much, not even my bosses, but my male colleagues. always being the one to hope them. can i find something for you? can i get this research for you? so i was somehow not as good as

i and i think you really need to stand up for yourself. the other thing i have learned over the years and that's why being a woman in these kinds of careers is so much fun is that i've been able to bring along and hire and promote so many young women who have not taken leadership roles throughout our company. it's a continual process to see these colleagues advance and they are having the careers of some of us could have only dreamed as a management as well. >> surely and has had some thing similar to you. and for the stars. you want to talk about your advice? >> my father says aim for the stars or you can reach the treetops. i kind of thought, his fidelity to the stars pretty quickly, i have failed.

but his point was really if you don't aim high, you won't go far. but embedded in the message is that there are steps along the way, but you do have to decide that your view is higher than where you are and to take that took time, but in the end they try to live my life that way. >> of course you're also working very hard, do you make a point to say it's important to take time to relax and enjoy friends. >> right. i say take time to smell the roses because sinclair sent me that question, it just took me back to when i was 17 and the struggles i was having at that time, you know, facing my mom started and being on my own and probably not have been a special as they needed, but realizing i had to pull it together and manage that. so i did a really good job for

probably the next decade at striving and pushing forward professionally. probably didn't take time to enjoy life as much as i should. and so now when i look back, i think she, when i was in an thing i'd wish i'd taken more time to travel instead of hitting the books as much. so i think that is what i would do differently now. i'm getting some of that for me children now. >> well, what a panel. i just can't thank you enough. [applause] i so enjoyed. it's not everyday look at the fantastic diversity so thank you, thank you amid thank you. we'll take a short break and be back with our next discussion a little bit.

>> a day to come back with each another and that this distance over and really obey the law down what's going on in this country. you people been giving me me a long time and i've got this case coming up. i think to talk to united states of america was going on. >> of course his family goes all the way back to italy. he settled in rhode island, work

his way up, first of a so-called buildable of crimes, but eventually became a crime for said new england with his headquarters on federal hill in rhode island. sometimes people think mob guys. that's not true at all. they have people who are incredibly intelligent. they pulled some scams, for example, on wall street that would make bernie made us look like a piker. but they had traditional so-called crime, which are extortion. of course they viewed it as protecting your business from other guys who might try to shake you down, et cetera appears to their repertoire grew and grew as a result of their trying to protect their way of doing things.